Hector Arana Sr. (Jeff Burk photo)

Hector Arana Sr., rider of the Lucas Oil Pro Stock Motorcycle, is fairly pleased with his weekend of racing in St. Louis even though he's a bit perplexed about the performance of his two-wheel racer on Sunday.

"It's throwing me for a curve," Arana said. "My tune-up is pretty good, the clutch combination is good, so I still can't put a finger on it why it's not running as fast as we did in Friday and Saturday qualifying. For some reason we are slowing down, and I don't quite know why yet."

Hector Arana Jr. (Jeff Burk photo)

Hector Arana Jr., rider of the Lucas Oil Racing TV Buell, came very close to an opening-round upset over Andrew Hines, but an uncharacteristically subpar reaction time cost the younger Arana a chance at victory. Hines captured the holeshot win, 6.908/194.52 to 6.911/193.49.

"We ran the best we have all weekend, but unfortunately I started thinking too much on the starting line and I was a little too late leaving on Andrew," Arana Jr. said. "He was able to get the holeshot on me. I just have to go back and clear my mind, move past that, and get beyond that point and go from there."